30th Birthday Trip

Thankful Thursday

This week I am thankful for:

• my mom.  She has helped me out SO MUCH with the house... spending hours and hours painting and now helping me move. She does so much for me and I love her VERY much!
• all of the cabinet space/storage in my new house.
• new, clean toilets.
• Sonic Route 44's.
• my friends Cami and Sarah surprising me for my 30th birthday. They are taking me somewhere this weekend and I have no idea where or what to expect... that reminds me, I need to go pack!

A little about Hudson

I think Hudson's ear infection is taking a toll... he's been sleeping a lot lately.  My dad was keeping the boys and after a marathon day of painting, my mom and I came home to find this...

...and last week we went to Jo-Ann's and I knew Hudson was tired so I laid him in the cart and did a few laps around the store.  Didn't take long for him to give in...

On a slightly different note, I've been trying to dig out some boxes to pack for when we move.   I guess he's trying to make the packing a little easier on me...

Thankful Thursday

This week I am thankful for:

• the help I've had from others working on the house and/or babysitting - Gammy, Mimi, Pepaw, Cami - THANK YOU!
• my sweet husband hiring someone to paint the kitchen cabinets so I didn't have to... can't even begin to tell ya how grateful I am for that.
• already having the $35 ear drops that the doc prescribed for Hudson's ear infection.  (Wait... ear infection??  Why, yes, he did have an ear infection even with his tubes.  The doctor assured me that the tubes are working and that this infection is from a virus.)  Anyhoo, I had 1/2 the bottle of the ear drops from Reed's swimmers ear a couple of weeks back, so I was able to save that money... woo-hoo!
• finding Reed's backpack and all other supplies for school (that starts in only 4 1/2 weeks - yikes!)
• hearing giggles and squeals from my boys and their daddy while typing this post.  It's good stuff.

Funny

Susan kept the boys yesterday while my mom and I worked on the house. Last night I received an e-mail titled "This is the Life" with the picture below attached.

Pretty cute, huh?

Visting Cousins

Last Saturday, Gammy and the boys and I went to visit Brian's aunt's condo on Possum Kingdom lake. The boys had a great time playing and it was the first time we were able to see sweet Sophia, Rachel's daughter.

Reed got to see his beloved cousin Sarah (who is about 8 years older, but sweetly follows him around and keeps him entertained) and Hudson played with Emma. Emma is Libby's daughter and she was born 2 weeks after Hudson. They were SO cute together.

They had some sharing issues - Hudson, because he's used to fighting his brother for things and Emma because she is an only child. For example...see below:

My child was NOT gonna give up that water hose. :) A couple of other fun pics from the day:

Wisdom of a 5 year old

The kid knows me.  Well.  After the gym this morning (the hardest class I've ever taken there), we headed out to the car.  I was tired and beat down and Hudson seemed to weigh a good 50 to 60 pounds.  As we loaded up in the car and headed out of the parking lot, Reed asked me a question (that I can't remember now) and I gave him a breathless answer - frankly because I had inadvertently left my lungs on the floor of the aerobics room.  He said "Why are you talking like that?" I laughed a little to myself and said "Reed, I'm tired!"  And without skipping a beat, he said "Well, I guess it's a good thing you don't have 3 kids to get in the car, huh?"

Amen, little man. Amen.

My Husband Rocks

Click here.

Happy Birthday Grace!

Today was sweet Grace's first birthday party. She had a fun day partying, opening gifts, eating and swimming with lots of friends and family.  Her mom picked a lady bug theme and it turned out SO cute. I made her a sweet little shirt to go with the theme...

Isn't she a sweetie?  When Sara set the smash cake on her tray, she just picked the chocolate polka dots off.  It only took a few minutes for her to really get into it...

For a picture of the cake before, click here.

Reed and Em reading a book together... we'll save this one for the wedding.  :)

Reed couldn't get his ear wet, so he had to keep his head above water.  He did really well, but it was kinda sad that he spent pretty much the whole day sitting on the top step of the pool.

All in all, we had a really fun day.

 Happy Birthday Grace!

Thankful Thursday

It's already Thursday?  Seriously, where did the week go? Or for that matter, where has the summer gone? I really can't remember much of what went on in June because we have had so much going on.  I was looking at my calendar yesterday and Reed starts school in 6 weeks people!!  Whoa.

Back to my post.... this week, I'm thankful for:

• our men and women in the military.  They make so many sacrifices every day to allow us our freedom.   
• air conditioning.  It's July in Texas.  'Nuff said.
• many sweet people in our class who helped with a dinner that we put on Wednesday night for a kids camp.  I was a little overwhelmed with all that has been happening lately, and I had a lot of people step up to help and get things done.
• a clean car.  Reed took spilled some chocolate milk under his seat, didn't tell me and it began to reek.  I finally took it to the car wash and had the carpets shampooed and it smells SOOO much better. :)
• Reed is excited about starting school.  I know that the transition won't be hard for him and I'm very grateful for that!

Swimmers Ear

We just got back to the doctor where Reed was diagnosed with the lovely thing called swimmers ear (which is evidently an infection of the outer ear).  We have to put antibiotic drops in his ear 3 times a day and keep them out of the water for a week.  

Hmmm... summer in Texas with a 5 year old and no swimming.  It's gonna be a LONG week!

Fireworks

Hudson was ready to watch the fireworks...all you need is a Sonic drink, baby!

The last few years, we've gone to the Lowe's parking lot with friends to watch the fireworks. We circle up in our chairs and visit until the fireworks start. Just like at the parade, Hudson was a roamer. He started out in his chair by his bubba...

Came to my lap, then Dad's...

then to Gammy's lap with bubba...

and finally ended up with DadDad.

Afternoon Swimming

After the parade, we headed to Gammy and DadDad's for lunch and swimming. It was SO nice to have a pool to cool off in after the parade! We spent the day swimming and enjoying each other.  In the next picture, the splash in the middle is Reed. He spent hours in the pool and only got out when we made him. The super duper white guy over to the left is my husband... he thought he didn't need sunscreen because he "wouldn't be out in the sun that long". (Turns out that baby white skin burns pretty quickly. Who knew?)

The four of us playing in the pool

Sweet Hudson with his cute red and blue swimsuit

Gammy bought these owls to scare birds away...Hudson LOVES them. He waves hi to them and kisses them.

A family picture. Sadly, this is the best on we could get in the pool.

Happy Independence Day!

We had a great fourth of July. It was VERY hot, but we enjoyed spending time with family and friends and hanging out together. I love the Fourth of July in Granbury. It still has bits and pieces of the small town feel. In the morning, we went to the parade. Gammy and DadDad have always sat on the square, so that's where we end up almost every year. (I just made up 3 separate posts because of how out of order that blogger makes the pictures get...it's very annoying.)

Before the parade got to the square, DadDad took Reed to go get some ice cream for Gammy (a.k.a also a way for Reed to get some, too).

Dad and Hudson decided to tag along...

As I said, it was HOT. I put some water on Hudson's head to cool him down and it made the cutest mohawk. Here he is checking out his awesome American Flag.

He did not want to sit still at the parade. Luckily, we had some room for him to mill around and yet still keep him contained. Brian and Reed went down and sat on the ground by some friends, so Hudson took over his Daddy's chair.

Last year Hudson was only 5 months old, so he didn't get to enjoy all the fabulous festivities. He had a lot of fun this year, and I think we have some great pictures to prove it...

I didn't notice how many pictures that I didn't have of Reed until I started to go through them. He's getting older and wanting to do his own thing and spend time with friends instead of sit beside me and his daddy. I'm glad that he's independent, but at the same time, I'm getting a glimpse of what it will be like as he starts to grow into a boy and he's not my baby anymore! Sniff, sniff!

Swimming with the Cousins

Yesterday my mom and I took the boys and my nieces on a swim date. We swam for almost 5 hours and had the best time. The girls will be moving to Houston soon and I heard Reed tell them "I'm going to miss you two when you move." Lilly said "We'll miss you too!" I'm glad they got to enjoy such a great day together with Mimi. Here are some pictures from the day.

Reed and Lilly eating fruit for lunch - he liked the cantaloupe and she liked the strawberries...

Reed and Abi

Abi going down the slide

Lilly on the slide

All four cousins